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Asylum immigration in the Trump Era 2019

Attorney Assad Hafeez of Legal Strategies Company explains Asylum and fundamentals of this area of immigration law. There are several kinds of Asylum, this presentation focuses on Particular Social Group Asylum law.

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Asylum immigration in the Trump Era 2019

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  1. Particular Social Group Asylum for Immigrants (Trump Era) Assad Hafeez Esq. 916-836-5755 www.legalstrategiescompany.com 510 Bercut Drive Ste V, Sacramento CA 95811 916-836-5755 or email ahafeez@legalstrategiescompany.com

  2. Seminar overview • Summary of US Asylum law • Particular Social Group • How to qualify • Current trends and changes under the Trump administration Contact Hafeez Esq. 916-836-5755 or visit www.legalstrategiescompany.com

  3. Biography of Instructor, Assad Hafeez Esq. • Born and raised in multicultural family, father from Pakistan, mother from Colombia • Studied International Relations • Provides following services • Citizenship & Naturalization • Green cards & Permanent residency • Petitions for family, spouses, fiancés • Work permits • Deportation & Removal defense; includes Asylum • O1B Visa for those with Extraordinary ability and talents • National Interest Visa Waivers for persons in globally competitive fields Contact Hafeez Esq. 916-836-5755 or visit www.legalstrategiescompany.com

  4. What’s Asylum & “Particular Social Group” (PSG) anyway? • Asylum • Burden of proof is on the applicant • Establish applicant is a refugee, under section 101(a)(42)(A) . • …race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinionwas or will be at least one central reason for persecuting the applicant. • Testimony may be sufficient without corroboration, however only if the applicant testimony is credible, persuasive, and refers to specific facts sufficient to demonstrate he or she is a refugee. IJ may weigh credible testimony with other evidence of record. • If IJ requests it, evidence must be provided unless the applicant does not have the evidence and cannot reasonably obtain the evidence. • Particular Social Group Contact Hafeez Esq. 916-836-5755 or visit www.legalstrategiescompany.com

  5. More factors • Persecution • Past persecution- presumption of well-founded fear • Well-founded fear of future persecution (reasonable possibility of future persecution, on account of a protected ground, by the government or an entity the government is unable or unwilling to control). 8 C.F.R. § 1208.13(b)(2) • Government unwillingness or inability to control persecutor • On account of (“nexus”) • Statements of the persecutor • Motives, mixed? Clear? Imputed? • One Central Reason standard • Discussion of the kind of harm • Country condition evidence demonstrating that persecution occurs because the government tolerates or views it permissible against the protected group • Evidence • If judge seeks corroborating evidence, applicant or counsel must provide that evidence or explain why it is not reasonably obtainable. INA § 208(b)(1)(B)(ii). Contact Hafeez Esq. 916-836-5755 or visit www.legalstrategiescompany.com

  6. Matter of A-B-, 27 I&N Dec. 316 (AG 2018) • Made changes deemed a serious loss to domestic violence and victims of crime by community groups • Overturned a previous decision, Matter of A-R-C-G-, 26 I&N Dec. 338 (BIA 2014) but upheld previous PSG law Contact Hafeez Esq. 916-836-5755 or visit www.legalstrategiescompany.com

  7. AB continued • Matter of A-B- eliminates A-R-C-G- as a precedential decision, • Does not create any new asylum standards, nor does it say that the group identified in A-R-C-G- can never be viable. • Rationale was because the way BIA reached their decision. A-B- restates the PSG definition and other asylum elements. • Question was framed as whether “being a victim of private criminal activity constitutes a cognizable “particular social group” for purposes of an application for asylum and withholding of removal.” Matter of A-B-, 27 I&N Dec. 227 (A.G. 2018) Contact Hafeez Esq. 916-836-5755 or visit www.legalstrategiescompany.com

  8. Holding continued • Attorney General held that in A-R-C-G-, the BIA’s analysis establishing that “married women in Guatemala who are unable to leave their relationship” was a cognizable PSG was cursory and did not accurately apply the M-E-V-G- and W-G-R- precedents (BIA law) regarding social distinction and particularity. • Groups must clearly meet the PSG requirements of the jurisdiction where they are proposed. • Also found the PSG in A-B-, “El Salvadorian women who are unable to leave their domestic relationships where they have children in common,” is likely not cognizable, but remanded for a new analysis • “[g]enerally, claims . . . pertaining to domestic violence or gang violence perpetrated by non-governmental actors will not qualify for asylum.” A-B-, 27 I&N Dec. at 320. Contact Hafeez Esq. 916-836-5755 or visit www.legalstrategiescompany.com

  9. How does one qualify for Asylum? • Demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution • Past persecution presumption • On account of “race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” INA § 101(a)(42)(A). • Matter of Acosta, 19 I&N Dec. 211 (BIA 1985), definedPSG & compared other protected refugee grounds (i.e. race, religion, nationality and political opinion). • Innate characteristics • Or characteristics that one should not be required to change Contact Hafeez Esq. 916-836-5755 or visit www.legalstrategiescompany.com

  10. Matter of M-E-V-G- • Common immutable characteristic • Innate characteristic, like sex, color, kinship ties • Or shared past experiences, like former military leadership or land ownership. • A group defined with particularity • Socially distinct • Matter of ME-V-G-, 26 I&N Dec. 227 (BIA 2014) & Matter of W-G-R-, 26 I&N Dec. 20 (BIA 2014), clarifying S-E-G-. • Social visibility does not mean literal visibility, but instead refers to whether the PSG is recognized within society as a distinct entity. 26 I&N Dec. at 240-41. BIA renamed visibility to “social distinction.” Contact Hafeez Esq. 916-836-5755 or visit www.legalstrategiescompany.com

  11. Emergence of Gang resistance and related cases • Matter of S-E-G-, 24 I&N Dec. 579 (BIA 2008) & Matter of E-A-G-, 24 I&N Dec. 591 (BIA 2008). • Must be based on an immutable characteristic, • “Socially visible” • “… generally be recognizable by others in the community.” Id. at 586. • Particularly defined. • Defined in a manner sufficiently distinct that …recognized, in the society in question, as a discrete class of persons. S-E-G-, 25 I&N Dec. at 584. • Not be “too amorphous . . . to create a benchmark for determining group membership.” Id. • Group was rejected as “a potentially large and diffuse segment of society.” Id. at 585. Contact Hafeez Esq. 916-836-5755 or visit www.legalstrategiescompany.com

  12. ARCG history • Matter of A-R-C-G-, 26 I&N Dec. 388 (BIA 2014), Attorney General Sessions has now overturned. BIA found that the group of “married women in Guatemala who are unable to leave their relationship” was socially distinct and sufficiently particular. • Established persecution on account of the PSG “married women in Guatemala who are unable to leave their relationship.” Despite this concession, the BIA examined the PSG and found it to be particularly defined and socially distinct under both M-E-V-G- and W-G-R-. A-R-C-G-, 26 I&N Dec. at 393-94. • “the issue of social distinction will depend on the facts and evidence in each individual case, including documented country conditions, law enforcement statistics, and expert witnesses, if proffered; the respondent’s past experiences; and other reliable and credible sources of information.” Id. at 394-95. • Nexus would be determined on a case-by-case basis and would “depend on the facts and circumstances of the individual claim.” Id. at 395. Contact Hafeez Esq. 916-836-5755 or visit www.legalstrategiescompany.com

  13. Statutory Bars to Asylum • Persecutors (INA section 208(b)(2)(A)(i) • Particularly Serious Crimes (208(b)(2)(A)(ii), convicted by final judgment of a PSC in the US constitutes a danger to the community • Serious Nonpolitical Crimes (208(b)(2)(A)(iii), serious reasons to believe applicant committed serious, nonpolitical crime outside the US prior to arrival • Drug trafficking for example • Aggravated Felonies • Crimes designated by regulation or the BIA qualify • Danger to US Security, 208(b)(2)(A)(iv) • Terrorism Related inadmissibility Grounds (TRIG), 208(b)(2)(A)(v) • Firm Resettlement 208(b)(2)(A)(vi), firmly resettled in another country prior to arriving in the US. • Safe 3rd Country • Previous Asylum Request • One Year time limit Contact Hafeez Esq. 916-836-5755 or visit www.legalstrategiescompany.com

  14. Key changes under Trump administration • Matter of A-B- • Possible new Port of Entry requirement, Border Crisis in News • Increased media attention on “metering” policy • Motions to continue face increased scrutiny and framed as “independent relief” Contact Hafeez Esq. 916-836-5755 or visit www.legalstrategiescompany.com

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